Written question asked by Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 20 January 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 30 January 2003. It was answered by Malcolm Wicks (Labour) on Thursday, 30 January 2003 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Dept for Work and Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many child benefit claims have been received in (a) total and (b) via the electronic claim process since the launch of the child benefit electronic claim form; and how many claims proved to be successful. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many child benefit claims have been received in (a) total and (b) via the electronic claim process since the launch of the child benefit electronic claim form; and how many claims proved to be successful. [93054] Malcolm Wicks: The Child Benefit electronic claims process was introduced on 28 October 2002. The total number of Child Benefit claims received in the Child Benefit Centre during the period 28 October 2002 to 13 January 2003 was 156,852. Of these, 1,797 claims were received electronically, 1.1 per cent. of overall total. During the same period around 11,000 claims were disallowed in total, although this will include some claims made before 28 October. No information is available on the proportion of disallowed claims that were received electronically.

Secondary information